“Grounded for Christmas” is a made for TV holiday movie. If the weak production, suspect acting, and predictable plot didn’t give that away, the fading in and out at the obvious commercial breaks surely will.
The film stars Julianna Guill as Nina; a commercial airline pilot who gets snowed-in in her suburban Ohio town for Christmas. Joining Nina is fellow pilot Brady (Corey Sevier) who pretends to be her boyfriend to appease her pushy family.
Yes, we’ve seen this plot a million times before. The differences are the occupations of the characters. Having Nina be a pilot is a nice touch. It’s not a role commonly assigned to a female lead. It adds (I guess) a bit of dynamics to the part. She’s also obsessed with taking and posting pics on Instagram, which irks Brady to some minor degree.
I was first introduced to Julianna Guill in the excellent film “Christmas Eve.” She’s a very good actress and does the most she can with the Nina character as allowed by the parameters of the story. She’s can be funny or serious as the situation deems. She has that girl-next-door vibe that is required for these types of movies. I’d like to see Netflix lock her up for a series of Christmas films going forward.
The rest of the cast is a group of interchangeable parts. Any of which could easily be replaced with any other actor and you wouldn’t miss a beat. Nina’s parents are played by Cheryl Ladd and Ted Etherton. Ladd looks young enough to be Guill’s slightly older sister.
Guill and Sevier have a decent rapport. They are hysterical together at the initial Christmas party in which Brady meets the family. The rest of their scenes together consist of the usual. They pretend to be together. They actually fall in love. A flat out infuriating thing happens that “breaks them up” before
**SPOILER ALERT**
They get back together in time for Christmas! You already know that’s what is going to happen five minutes into the movie.
One personal bit of enjoyment comes from Nina and her friends planning a trip to Turks and Caicos. The vacation is wrecked by the winter storm that sets up the plot. Covid did the same for me. It was funny to see characters plotting the same vacation only to have it cancelled at the last minute.
I bought this movie on Amazon Prime for .99 if for no other reason that Julianna Guill. It was fine to watch once. I’ll sell it back for some coal and a glass of eggnog.
